School board recesses Dickson decision

Linda Conner Lambeck

Updated 10:11 pm, Friday, October 11, 2013

BRIDGEPORT -- Faced with reviewing mounds of hearing transcripts, three security tapes and two 20-page legal briefs, the city's school board recessed its first deliberation session Friday without deciding whether to fire Tisdale School Principal Carmen Perez Dickson.

Instead, the seven school board members will meet again Monday at 5:30 p.m., presumably at City Hall, even though Columbus Day is a legal holiday.

The board, unsure if it is bound under state statutes to reach a decision within 15 days, said it doesn't want to take any chances, so that's why it plans to meet again so soon.

"God bless us if we can get more time, but we should operate on the notion that we're not," City Attorney Mark Anastasi told board members.

"If we don't get it done, after all the work that has been done, I can imagine the reputation we will receive," added Thomas Mulligan, one of the board members who has sat through hearings since June. "We have to err on the side of caution."

Dickson is accused of picking up and dragging kindergarten students on at least three occasions. The incidents were caught on security videos in 2012.

Dickson was suspended with pay in July 2012 and Schools Superintendent Paul Vallas recommended in May that the veteran administrator be fired. Dickson opted to have the school board, not an arbitration panel, decide the matter and the sessions have been conducted largely in public.

The board has sat through hours of testimony from current and former school employees, a state Department of Children and Families worker and Dickson herself before wrapping up testimony Oct. 4.

Dickson maintains she did not harm the children and used appropriate force to handle children who were posing a danger to themselves or others.

The timing of the accusations has also been questioned, coming shortly after the state Supreme Court overturned a $1.3 million verdict awarded to Dickson after she sued the district, claiming a long campaign of harassment and discrimination.

The deliberations will occur mostly in executive session, although the board must take its vote in public.

Anastasi said the board, after reviewing the evidence, must deliver a majority decision. The decision does not have to be unanimous, however.

The board will then prepare a preliminary written decision that must be modified to everyone's satisfaction before a final vote can be taken.

If the 15-day deliberation time frame holds, a decision about Dickson would have to be made by Oct. 19.

When the board meets Monday, members said they want Tisdale discipline and suspension data that have been requested on several occasions. The panel also wants to review the security tapes.

While on administrative leave, Dickson continues to collect a $131,260 salary. District officials could not say Friday how much the case has cost the district in legal fees.